NHL apparently wanted (wants?) to complicate the path of the players who signed with the Euro teams during the lockout. Until yesterday, they were not approving transfer cards for any of the involved players (a necessary step for the player contracts to be validated with IIHF, though usually a formality that should take minutes to resolve) .

Meanwhile, there was a nearly sold-out 02 arena waiting for the 6 NHLers to skate for Kladno or Slavia Prague at 6PM Prague time on Wednesday. USA Hockey (i.e. the organization responsible for processing the transfer cards) was allegedly ignoring the Czech Hockey Federation calls, emails... and eventually claimed they would not sign them "unless Bettman called." So, at 3 AM on Wednesday, Mighty #68 picked up his phone, called his friend Brendan S., who took his cellphone straight to Bettman's office, and yada, yada, yada - the transfer cards were sent in time for the players to be approved...

Jagr jokingly blamed himself for the loss (2:3, with Slavia's Sobotka (STL) and Cervenka (CAL) each having 3 points) on himself, claiming that if he only knew how the Slavia duo would play, he would have never lobbied for their cards to be approved.